Aces Day at West Oak + Organic Plant Sale Weekend!

All hands up for "No Guts No Glory!"

Pilot Light Chef's "Tacos Al Pastor" curriculum = "Engagement through the roof" - Mr Bercos 5th grade Dual Language.

You girls make the best hummus and pesto ever!

Mr Willeford loved our tasty samples too!

I tried to hit every table and talk FOOD!

Chef Rob knows how to inspire us with great food!

The students placed their tally on any of the boards they liked!

Super high Ambassador fives!

Sara put this fantastic video together! I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!! Thank you so much... I still cannot believe how fast you made it:)

It's been a week and I still can't stop smiling ear to ear! What an awesome day we had at West Oak School last Wednesday!

I know I have thanked everyone, but I must do so again.

Thank you Principle Chris Willeford - You said "Aces Day" and we said YES!

Thank you Pilot Light Chefs - Alex, you and I have been dreaming for a long time and finally, FINALLY we were able to get your common core aligned food education out to the suburbs. I can't wait to do it again!

Thank you Preferred Meals - Mary, it was wonderful having you in the lunchroom with us and the kids LOVED tricking out their tacos! Thank you for jumping into our hot food education balloon and Let's take it again up uP UP next year!

Thank you Ambassador Sara Lohrman + Stevenson High School Food Revolution Club - I have never had so much fun speaking, teaching and working alongside a group of students! By the last lunch (there were four of them!) you all were making everything on your own and running the entire tasting line. BOOM.

Thank you Chef Rob - Your presence, your wellness story and your sweet potato hummus rocked our worlds! I cannot wait to work with you again. What great energy we have together!

Thank you Sue Kruckman - You deserve Wellness Chair + Nurse of the YEAR! Thank you for spear heading this day from the "inside". It could not have happened without your passion and organization. You are my school wellness hero.

Last but not least, thank you Jamie's Food Revolution for inspiring us all to get food education back into our schools and to cook more from scratch at home together. We've been at it together for 4 years now and I love volunteering for this fantastic campaign.

What a team effort! What a day! Every smile, every tally mark, every conversation was one.more.drop into the good food conversation. There were so many students who had never tried hummus, let alone sweet potatoes or a pesto. "What is cilantro? What is pesto? You can put that on your taco? WHAT!?" The "Tacos Al Pastor" lesson connected the students to their food, a tangible take away lesson with real world application. My "No Guts No Glory" presentation made them laugh and it made them think a little bit more about what is in their food + where their food is coming from. It linked our gut health to our mental and physical health and encouraged them to take ownership like an athlete takes charge of the game!!

Wanna make what we whipped up on Aces Day? I know you will enjoy Jamie's Simple Hummus along with the other 9 recipes that are now LIVE on our website to download and cook for your family table. Here is the link: Jamie's 10 Food Revolution Day Recipes (Simple Hummus included) - And don't forget to sign your name as a fellow food revolutionary!

Chef Rob’s Sweet Potato Hummus

1 cup Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon Cumin

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoon Sea or Kosher salt

1 whole Sweet potato Roasted and Diced

1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper (optional)

Add all ingredients to a blender, food processor or nutribullet and blend! Feel free to use reserved garbanzo bean juice to thin out the hummus rather than add extra oil for a creamier consistency (thanks for the great tip Chef Rob!)

Super Food Ambassador Lindsey’s Cilantro Pesto

1 zucchini diced

¼ cup sunflower seeds

1 bunch fresh cilantro (stems included)

1 lemon juiced

2-3 Tablespoon avocado oil OR extra virgin olive oil

A healthy pinch of sea salt

Add all ingredients to a blender, food processor or nutribullet and blend! Feel free to add more lemon juice or oil to get to your desired consistency.

What's up NEXT!?!?!?

FOOD REVOLUTION DAY - May 20th!

Our Food Revolution Day Community event will be on Saturday from 10-2pm at the Liberty Prairie Organic Plant Sale and Farm Open House. Please come out and see us! We will have a booth with kids' cooking kits for sale, FRD recipes and loads of suggestions on what to buy for your kitchen garden so you can cook up a storm with us this Summer!

Here is the list of organic plants that will be available to purchase: Liberty Prairie Organic Seedlings

See you Saturday!

xoxoL

ps

Connect up with us on Facebook at our Lake County Food Revolution Page for great articles, recipes and information on upcoming community, school and workplace events.

It's a Chicago Food Day 2015 + Lake County BIG Apple Crunch WRAP

Golly Gee Willackers... FINALLY a recap on our Chicago and Lake County Food Day events!

Better late than never... so here we GO!

I had a ball on the planning committee with Executive Director Dana Garcia (pictured left of me) and Marketing Creative Lead, Bill Bonner. Here we all are with our fantastic Governer's State Volunteers! The event was a huge success at Daley Plaza, anchored by Cathy Kenworthy, CEO of Interactive Health who spoke in front of Daley Plaza about the impact of real food wellness in our lives. I could just feel the electricity buzz stronger at the Farmer's Market after her inspirational speech!

It was an honor to be a part of this year's Chicago Food Day events and I cannot WAIT until next year!! Be sure to visit Foodday.org and check out how our entire nation celebrated!

Gotta have music! Thank you Chicago Ambassador Sarvin and Awatif for volunteering with us!

Look who joined us from Lake County! Ohhhhh... I am still dreaming of our adventures together last Summer at the Prairie Farm Corps!

We kicked off our Hidden Harvest Hunt with three drops at Daley Plaza. Dana and I thought it would be fun to take a cue from Survivor's hidden immunity necklace shenanigans... Would anyone realize that it's an actual envelope and not just a decoration on the podium? 

Learn more about our incredible 3-day +6k sponsored social media treasure hunt that helped 15 Chicagoans BUY + COOK + GROW + EAT more real food HERE. 

I took the stage after Cathy to kick off our 2015 Hidden Harvest Hunt with a few LIVE Hidden Harvest drops on the Plaza!

He found the hidden immunity necklace... errrrr I mean envelope!

This lucky winner found his at the American Diabetes of Illinois tent!

Our first winner outside of Daley Plaza was literally panting as she came up the escalator with her stroller! She inched out another treasure hunter by only 5 minutes! WHOA!

Huge thanks to the following Hidden Harvest Drop Location Sponsors for making our social media treasure hunt so FUN & INTERACTIVE:

Thank you Foodseum!

Thank you The Chopping Block! 

HUGE thanks to our Hidden Harvest Hunt inspiration and sponsor, @HiddenCashChi1. This lovely family found their envelope!

The @HiddenCashChi1 twitter handle is at it year round, so don't forget to give them follow and keep up the "pay it forward" cash hunting! ...You never know how much moullah you will find:)

Thank you Uncommon Ground for hosting TWO drops with Farmer Alison at their urban rooftop farm (the 1st certified organic rooftop farm in the USA!) and at their epic Greenstar Brewery with Brewmaster Martin (the 1st certified organic brewery in Illinois!).

Thank you Real Food Northwestern for hosting TWO drops during your very own campus Hidden Harvest hunt! We are so impressed by your week of Food Day activities! GO NU!

Thank you Snap Kitchen!

Thank you Wow Bao!

Thank you Growing Home at the Green City Market! 

Huge LOVE to Ambassador Christina Erickson for braving our Hidden Harvest in the cold rain with me all day!!!

Thank you Holzkopf's Meat Market!

Thank you Peterson Garden Project's Fearless Kitchen for hosting TWO live drops in your community cooking classes!

The Great Apple Crunch - Lake County

HATS OFF to the Stevenson High School's NEW Food Revolution Club for organizing Lake County's first multi-district Big Apple Crunch!

Over 3500 students at Washington, Mechanics Grove, Fairhaven, Diamond Lake, West Oak, Sprague and Daniel Wright schools took part in the Lake County Apple Crunch for Food Day. Over 2,000 apples were donated by Harvest Time Orchard (Twin Lakes, WI) and hand picked by the SHS Food Rev club. District 76's apples were donated by Preferred Meals. Additional apples were donated by Sunset Foods, Mariano's and Trader Joe's.

The SHS Food Revolution club coordinated the entire Lake County effort from start to finish; I could not be more impressed by the organization and execution of the school events! WOW! 

WELCOME NEW AMBASSADOR SARA LOHRMANN to the Lake County Food Revolution Team! Sara joins me and Ambassador Christina (pictured left) as the SHS Food Rev sponsor. Together we will work to bring more energy to our local Food Revolution efforts happening in our homes + schools + workplaces here in Lake County! 

I got to meet these two amazing co-founders of the SHS Food Revolution Club at West Oak! They took charge and led all four West Oak School lunches in crunching simultaneously. Each student left with a certificate of participation including easy "from scratch" recipe ideas to take home and try out in their own kitchens.

Ambassador Christina + Food Revolution Club SHS = AMAZING!!

Congratulations to all of the apple trivia winners - They won their very own t-shirt prizes!

Big thanks to Mary (hot pink coat) at Preferred Meals for donating apples for District 76's CRUNCH and to Sue Kruckman (far right), our amazing D76 Wellness Committee Chair who helped to organize D76's big lunchroom day!

THANK YOU for supporting food education + more real food in our schools!

And that's a FOOD DAY 2015 WRAP!

See ya next year on and around October 24th!!!!

xoxoxo
L